🔗 Share this article

“This is a team, it is a club, and we all go together hand in hand,” the Real Madrid coach insisted, maybe protesting somewhat excessively. “When you’re Real Madrid coach you’re ready,” he added on the eve before Manchester City visit once more the Santiago Bernabéu for a new edition of a frequent heavyweight clash. “I’m looking forward to what’s coming and that starts tomorrow, [an opportunity] to turn round the anger. In our heads, there’s only City. In football, for better or worse, things change quickly”. Failure and things could change immediately, and permanently: this opportunity is an imperative, too.

Crisis Talks After Poor Setback

Following Madrid’s utterly disappointing 2-0 home defeat on Sunday, Alonso revealed he had “reached some conclusions,” and he was far from the only one. Into the early hours, crisis talks persisted, the club’s leadership drawing their own conclusions after a solitary triumph in five league games. Their assessments were different and while radical changes are temporarily shelved, patience is finite, the names of candidates already circulating. “You have to face those situations but my head’s only on the game, things I can control,” Alonso said here

“Undoubtedly the manager prepared a solid strategy, but ultimately, we the footballers are the ones performing,” Aurélien Tchouaméni said. “If we lost 2-0 to Celta, there’s a problem that’s on us: it’s not the coach’s fault.”

A Swift Descent After Early Promise

City will be his 28th game in charge of Madrid and it might be his final one at a club where a turmoil is always just two losses around the corner, where even ties are unacceptable, and there’s always someone else who can coach. Things have indeed changed fast, even if the origins of the trouble were there from the start. Presented as a systems coach, precisely the required remedy after a season of laissez-faire and failure, Alonso was counter-cultural at a players’ club.

When Madrid triumphed in El Clásico in late October, they established a five-point lead at the top. They had triumphed in twelve out of thirteen competitive games, although the loss had been heavy: 5-2 at Atlético. It also revealed cracks. Taken off after 72 minutes, Vinícius Júnior stormed off down the tunnel, seemingly ready to quit the club. In a statement a few days later he expressed regret to all apart from Alonso. Institutionally, rather than supporting the trainer, there was radio silence.

Strains Emerging

Internally, the assessment was clear: Alonso shouldn’t have taken Vinícius off. Questioned on this point if he would do that again, Alonso replied: “I am unsure of the purpose of that query. If, in the moment, I believe a decision is required on the field, I will make it.” Tensions had been exposed, a disconnect between trainer and a portion of the team. Federico Valverde too had expressed his irritation publicly. The pieces weren’t fitting as they should. A common complaint began to emerge about all the instructions, the videos, the extended practices. Who did he think he was, the manager?!

Nine days after the clásico, Madrid were defeated at Anfield, starting a sequence of two wins in seven. Able to play direct, they beat Olympiakos and Athletic Bilbao but between those tied with Rayo, Elche and Girona. After a delay, talks were held to repair cracks or at least cover cracks, to establish peace. Focus was directed at the footballers for the first time.

A Short-Lived Rapprochement

In Bilbao, where they had been brought together a day early, it seemed some compromise had been found; Alonso yielding to their requests more than they did his. Reconciliation was orchestrated when Vinícius hugged the coach as he departed. A couple of days' rest followed. A few days after, though, Celta defeated them and so it unravels again.

That it is understood that Alonso’s future is under scrutiny is as significant as the fact it is. If Madrid beat City, that can always be denied, but it is deliberate. Alonso knows that. He also knows, for all that he tried to talk about fitness issues and bad luck, not even truly persuading himself, Madrid were awful against Celta: an absence of character, poor commitment, an absence of tactical shape.

The Coach: The Easiest Target

But the weakest link, is always the manager, and Alonso’s future, more than the actual football, was the central theme to this game. However much the man who is still Madrid’s manager kept trying to refocus on the match, which he did with virtually all his replies. The briefest response he gave might have been the most significant, had he truly believed it. Asked if he felt the entire team was behind him, Alonso replied in a one word: “yes.”

“The role of Real Madrid coach isn't to alter the culture; it is to adjust,” Alonso continued. “We understand the ethos of Real Madrid thoroughly; it's what makes it the globe's greatest club. One must adjust, absorb knowledge, engage with the squad. Certain days bring success, others less so. We must confront this with vigor and optimism; it's the sole path to reversal.”

It was when he was asked if he felt by himself that Alonso talked of a team, a club, that goes hand in hand, and when attention was turned to the question of endorsement or the deficit from above, he replied: “Communication [with the hierarchy] is constant, and it comes from confidence, unity and affection. We’re all together in this. We’re mentally ready to face everything that comes: the team is united, convinced that we can win tomorrow, no one has any doubts about that. It is the Champions League. We are at the Bernabéu. The atmosphere will be special. That creates a different energy, including in the players.”